Soul Search
by Invaderk
Summary: [KataraxAang][TophxSokka] Katara is on the brink of death, and the only way that Aang can save her is by venturing into the Spirit World. But he won't be going alone...
1. Chaos

A/N: My overactive mind dreamed this up one night. It didn't make any sense, so I tweaked it so it does make sense, and I wrote in in a waiting room (which just happens to be an excellent place to write, by the way, save for the screaming children).

Anyway, if you don't like OC's, please note that this OC is more of a plot device and will not return for later chapters if I actually write them. The same goes for the first person/present tense. I haven't decided whether to write more as of yet.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Happy Reading!

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_Soul Search_

_Chapter One - Chaos_

The noise level in the crowded hospital waiting room is just short of deafening. An abnormal amount of people – adults, mostly, but some kids like me as well – crammed together in the room, looking for some sort of fuel to fire their need for breaking news. That really bothers me, when people flock to places to catch a glimpse of another person's pain, just because the person is famous or something. I hate it especially when people with real problems need the space more, like me or this girl next to me.

Well, she's actually a grown woman, but she looks pretty sick in my opinion. We've spoken only a little, mostly about the amount of people here, but I have learned a little bit about her since she sat down next me about ten minutes ago, right after they brought in that "special case" that drew the crowd in. She's blind, and she doesn't particularly want to be here, but she never said _why_ she was here. Actually, she looks like she's hiding, because she's wearing a cloak that covers her milky green eyes, and she's dressed in black right down to her bare feet, which never leave the ground. While she acts indifferent, for the most part, I can tell that she's nervous and probably ill; she's got this pale look about her, like she's worried about something.

"What's wrong with you, again?" she asks. I can tell that she's just trying to keep her mind off of whatever is bothering her.

I sniffle. My tears have long since vanished, but my nose is still runny and it bothers me. "Broken arm," I say. "I think I might need an earth cast or something, but the medics are all busy with the –"

"Good times," she cuts in sarcastically, not wanting to address the subject at hand. "I'd help you out – I'm an Earthbender, see – but I'm not a doctor and, quite frankly, I don't want or need to be recognized right now."

I open my mouth to ask why, but at that moment she gasps, says a name I don't quite catch, and flips backwards off the bench.

"What the –?" I grab my arm to my chest to keep it from moving around too much and crane my neck back to see where she'd gone. I see her retreat to the back of the room and sit behind a large man with lots of tattoos. A split second after she vanishes, the front door opens and a man darts in, looking as sick and worried as the blind woman. The man, who has a nice-looking, scruffy sort of beard, approaches the front desk and speaks to the secretary, who looks rather strained. What he says, I cannot tell (because he whispers), but the secretary nods. Then, before I have a chance to hear them speak again and without peering around at all us hospital-goers, the man darts off after a nurse and into the emergency ward.

I sniffle again. My runny nose has really gotten on my nerves, and my arm has grown numb since I arrived here hours ago. Since this special case had been rushed in, the rest of us have been abandoned. I'm not bitter about it or anything, but I still think it's not fair that kids like me get ignored because of things like this.

Several people pass by my seat near the secretary's desk in the bearded man's wake, one of which bumps my broken arm as they pass. The pain erupts from the broken bone and travels up my arm, and I can only gasp in surprise and grab my arm to my chest again. It doesn't do much, and it doesn't keep a fresh batch of tears from falling down my face, but it immobilizes the wound enough. I cry quietly to myself.

Somewhere in a place that seems far distant to a crying kid, the door opens again and another man comes into view. My tears stop almost right away. I know who _this_ man is, and I also know that this is what all these extra people have been waiting for. The sound in the room drops to a few excited whispers. The man, clad in an orange robe and carrying a long walking stick-type thing, looks very much aware of his surroundings, but no less worried than the other man that had entered beforehand. In an attempt to draw less attention to himself (or rather, I thought, to keep from displaying how he actually feels) he acknowledges the secretary in what he assumes must be a nonchalant tone. I think he sounds petrified.

He and the secretary whisper for a moment, and the secretary nods her head in the direction of the emergency ward doors. He nods and bows to her before glancing around the room.

"Busy day," he observes with a pained smile. "Looks like half of Ba Sing Se is here."

The secretary shakes her head. "Half of them don't need anything other than something to gossip about. The word's spread fast, you know. They don't know what or why, but they know _who_. As for the medics – they're all working on the case now."

The man's eyebrows rise. "_All_ of them?"

The secretary nods. The man frowns. My jaw drops a little as he leans across the desk and says, "I don't think that's right – other people need help, too. Who's next on the waiting list?"

To my utmost surprise, the secretary points one old finger in my direction. "Broken arm and a few abrasions – she filled out a form under the name Lena."

When the man turns and his eyes land on me, I feel myself shrink down in my rickety old hospital chair. The man nods.

"Hey there, Lena." A split-second later, he is standing in front of me, as quick as if the air carried him over. His voice is kind. "How old are you?"

I am suddenly aware that my nose is probably dripping, and that my face is stained with tears. I sniffle yet again, annoyed that I don't even have a long sleeve to wipe my nose on so that I could look presentable to the Avatar. "I'm eight years old," I answer.

A small smile comes to his face, though it is not a happy one, and as if he read my mind, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out an orange handkerchief. "Keep it; it's clean," he says, handing it to me. I take it with my good hand and wipe my nose. "Aren't you a little young to be here by yourself? Have you got family here with you?"

Frowning, I shake my head. "I live on my own, Avatar Sir. Broke my arm 'cause I fell carrying my stuff to somewhere to stay."

"I see. And how long have you been waiting for help?"

My chair feels uncomfortable. I shift and wince at the pain in my arm. "A few hours, Sir," I say, knowing exactly what I am going to say and not wanting to talk about it. But it's just one of those things that I can't keep myself from saying. "Is your wife going to be okay?"

Now it is he who seems taken aback. He tries to reassure me with a kind smile, fails, and places a hand on my good shoulder. "I'm going to get you a doctor now, and afterwards you're going to spend the night in the children's ward, just in case you have any problems. Okay?"

I find that I can't smile; the muscles in my face seem to be frozen in a dead stare, so I can only nod. At this moment, I would give him every doctor in the world to help his wife if I could, if only it would take away that terrible, pained sadness in his stormy gray eyes.

-

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A/N: Like I said, not sure if I'll add more or not. But if I do, it'll be back to regular tense for me; this present tense business is too much work for something I do as a hobby. 

So okay, here's the part I need from you, my lovely readers. If you want more, tell me. If you don't, tell me that you don't. Simple enough, no?

Thanks for reading!


	2. Recruitment

A/N: I swear, I am working on this. I actually wrote it up in work a few days ago, but I didn't have time to type it all up until last night, between reading rufftoon's AU comic and chatting with Alisa and libowiekitty. Hmm... let's see... what else, what else? Ah, you can expect a oneshot in "Oneshot Shorts" soon, if all goes well.

I don't think this the best I've ever written, but I'm studying writing styles in hopes that I can take the dullness out of my own. Oh, and Sokka's perspective is a lot of fun to write!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Happy Reading!

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_Chapter Two – Recruitment_

Still.

She was completely still, save for the shallow rising and falling of her chest. For the moment, he and she were totally alone, for the various medics had been told to assist the other people in the waiting room until further notice. Her skin, her hand, was cold beneath his, as if the life were slowly leaving her body. No choked sobs came from him, though; no tears, and no cries. For the moment, he was too shocked to do a thing.

The door opened, but he didn't react at all. It seemed that he could not tear his eyes away from the woman he had sworn to protect until his dying day, the woman that was his little sister.

Katara of the Water Tribe, Waterbender extraordinaire and co-hero in the war; now on her deathbed.

A choked voice from the doorway accompanied that blur of orange that had appeared in his peripheral vision. "What happened, Sokka?"

"Close the door."

Aang fumbled with the doorknob behind him until he pushed the door shut, effectively closing out the excited voices of the gossipers. He leaned against the door for a moment, rubbed his eyes, looked up at his friend.

"I only just got the message," he sighed. "They said that she was attacked or something, and that – that her condition was 'critical'."

Sokka nodded, tearing his eyes from his sister's pale face only for long enough to glance at the exhausted Avatar. "Ozai's loyalists jumped her," he replied. "The medic says her back is broken here –" he gestured with two fingers to the base of her neck, and then to the small of her back, "– and here. It's a miracle she didn't die in the alley where they found her."

The Avatar made his way across the room as slowly as if he were approaching some sort of wounded animal; the sight of his wife lying there, helpless and dying, was more than his brain could take in at the moment. Voice low, he murmured, "I don't know what would be worse."

Sokka's eyebrow arched in surprise. "What?"

"I don't know what would be worse. Her dying on the spot, out there, or having her in here, alive and possibly suffering. Like this."

"Are you crazy?" exclaimed Sokka, turning and placing one warm hand on his sister's cold one. He could feel that rising in his chest, that obsessive feeling that comes before desperation and despair. "At least she has a chance of making it, this way!" He faltered then, and looked at Katara. As if by habit, he reached out and gently straightened her collar. "Right?"

Aang shook his head and approached the bedside for the first time. One of his hands found his wife's, and he grasped it. For a moment, the room was silent. Voices of the townspeople drifted in through the door. Outside, a gust of summer wind blew and wafted the branches of the trees. Katara didn't stir, her hair splayed partially over her face.

"There's nothing they can do now," said Aang. He placed his free hand on Katara's abdomen. "Her stomach is hardened and swollen."

"So she had a big meal before she left the house today. Big deal!"

Already Aang felt a tightening in his chest. He looked up at Sokka and saw in his eyes the exact emotions that he himself was feeling. "It's not food, Sokka. It's internal bleeding."

At Sokka's blank stare, he added, "Not curable. I think it may have been what killed Jet under Lake Laogai all those years ago."

Sokka's legs seemed to give out beneath him. He fell backwards into a chair and buried his face in his gloved hands. "My little sister is dying. _Dying!_ I – I need a miracle, Aang," he quietly gasped, though to Aang it sounded more like a plea.

He looked up from his hands and saw that Aang had not yet moved his hand from Katara's abdomen. In fact, Aang seemed to be concentrating deeply, his eyes closed, searching for a trace of life in the empty shell that was Katara's body. Sokka stared for a few seconds. Part of him wanted to interrupt and ask what exactly he was doing, but he'd been around Aang long enough to know not to bother trying to him during times like these. It was pointless to interrupt Avatar stuff. So instead, Sokka leaned his elbows on the hospital bed and watched through half-narrowed eyes, waiting for Aang's arrow to light up or something.

Then, a bright flash and a deep voice nearly gave him a heart attack. Behind Aang appeared a tall, palely glowing man dressed in Fire Nation garb. Sokka gasped.

"Roku!"

Having heard a familiar name, Aang snapped out of his trancelike state and spun around in his chair.

"Roku, what are _you_ doing here?" he asked, baffled.

The past Avatar frowned. "I am here regarding your wife, Aang. She is dying as we speak."

"…I know," Aang replied, head bowed. "What can I –?"

Suddenly, the doorknob rattled on the door to the room, but the door seemed to be locked or stuck, as if the doorframe had shrunk. One of the female medics yelled through the door, "Hey, who locked me out?"

Aang shot Sokka a look, but Sokka had already leaped to his feet and darted towards the door to take care of the matter.

"Hold on, I'm getting it!" he yelled to the medic.

"This is a private conversation," said Roku. "Let nobody enter."

Aang nodded once, turned to face the door, and stomped his foot. A tremor ran through the ground until a slab of rock popped out of the wall and slid across the door, holding it firmly shut.

Sokka reached the door, pressed his hands against it, and yelled, "I'm sorry, the door is stuck!"

The doorknob rattled again and a fist pounded weakly on the door. "Are you sure? Where's Avatar Aang?"

"He's, uh –" He cast a look over his shoulder at Aang, who had begun speaking quietly to Roku. He tugged at his collar; a thin, nervous sweat had broken out over his chest. "He's busy right now. Can I take a message?"

"_What?!_"

Meanwhile, Aang turned back to his past reincarnation and waited for him to say something important. The look on Roku's face was grave – a bad omen; his heart plummeted further. Of course, the man never looked particularly happy (_How could he?_ Aang asked himself, _being dead and all_…), but there was something in his eyes that did not bode well for the Airbender.

"As you know, you are the last of your kind." He spoke kindly, as if delivering bad news to an old friend. "Your wife is dying. As the last Airbender, it is your responsibility, your_ duty_, to repopulate, lest the race die out completely."

Aang shifted on his uncomfortable hospital chair. This was an uncomfortable conversation to have, even with oneself. He hoped that Sokka was too busy with the medics on the other side of the room to be paying attention.

"I take it that you have little intention to marry again, given the level of dedication you showed your wife in your four married years?"

Aang raised an eyebrow, half at Roku's question and half at Sokka's attempts at distracting the medics behind him. ("Hold on, I'll get a notepad and I'll be right back!" Sokka assured the medics.) "That… is correct. No intention at all, actually."

Roku nodded. "Very well, then. As you know, the process of dying is a complicated one." When Aang nodded, he continued. "The spirit of the dying soul must traverse, often escorted, the Spirit World until it reaches the End and is 'physically deceased'. Depending on the injury and the level of consciousness, the journey may take mere moments, or entire days. The journey for your wife has already begun, but her injuries keep her from dying quickly. If you, the Avatar, can find her soul and bring it back to the physical world before she reaches the End, you may bring her back. Her body will heal and she will live once more."

"This all sounds way too easy," grunted Sokka from where he stood with his back to the door, through which a handful of medics were trying to enter. Aang started in surprise and spun around. "Things don't usually go that easily for us. Is there some sort of trick? Some sort of monstrous giant that'll eat us when we try to get to Katara?"

"No," he replied, unfazed by Sokka's harsh tone, "but you will have to face the Guardian of the Pass. He will ask you questions – questions about the person you wish to meet, or related things – and you will have to answer each question correctly in order to pass."

"Great! Just great. I knew something like that would be there. It's always _something_." Sokka buried his face in his hands.

Aang, however, turned to his friend and said, voice filled with hope, "I don't know, Sokka, I don't think it should be that hard. If there's a question about Katara, between the two of us I'd say we could figure out the answer. I mean, I _am_ her husband. Who knows her better than I do?"

"Yet, you still might wish to bring a third into your party."

Turning back to Roku, he asked, "Why?"

"You would be surprised at what sheer numbers can accomplish. However, it would be unwise to take more than three, including yourself, into the Spirit World. But you must hurry. The clock is ticking. I would estimate that you have no more than tw days to accomplish this task."

Aang nodded, his jaw set.

"Good luck, Aang."

In a swirl of color, Roku disappeared and the white room was silent once more, except for the sounds of the door rattling and the medics yelling. The room seemed to breathe. Aang turned to Sokka. They shared a brief look, but they seemed to be thinking along the same lines because Sokka nodded promptly.

"I'll handle the medics," Aang began.

"– And I'll get a third person," finished Sokka. "Any preferences?"

"Just somebody in good health, and preferably someone who didn't come here to harass me about Katara."

On that note, Sokka nodded and unlocked the door. Aang slid his foot over to the side, moving the slab of rock back into the wall, and the door swung open. Several medics fell into the room in a flustered, shouting heap. The corners of Aang's mouth twitched upwards in a smile.

"Sorry about that; the door was jammed," He said. Out of the corner or his eye he saw Sokka slip from the room as the medics scrambled to their feet.

-

Due to his hurriedness, beforehand he hadn't noticed just how packed the waiting room really was. Children sat with mothers and fathers, while other people sat alone. _How many of them are here for real help instead of information on the Avatar's wife? _He wondered. He supposed that it didn't matter all that much, but his natural curiosity had always provoked such questions. Right now, though, most of him didn't really care who was here for what. He and Aang needed a third member for their journey, and fast. And somewhere in this room, he deduced, was a healthy person who hadn't come here because of Katara.

After shoving several gawking gossipers to the side and physically removing a small child from his chair (the child's mother shot Sokka a glare before scooping up her child and moving away), Sokka got up on the chair and looked around the room. All sorts of people were there – laughing people, crying people, sick people – it was a little overwhelming.

"Excuse me!" he called. The noise level dropped, but too few were paying attention. He called louder. "Hey! Everybody! Listen up now!"

An instant reaction followed. The room plunged into complete silence, leaving Sokka standing there rather awkwardly.

"Okay…" he trailed off, not sure where to begin. "I need a volunteer from the audience – I mean, the room. Somebody healthy and willing to do a potentially life-threatening job." A few hands rose into the air. Sokka finished his sentence. "You also have to do it for free."

The few hands that had risen dropped promptly back down. Sokka sighed and scratched his beard, put out by the lack of help he was getting.

_Well_, he mused darkly to himself, _it looks like me and Aang are going alone – _

"I'll do it."

Surprised by the sudden and delayed response, he looked up to see a woman dressed completely in black, eyes hidden behind a cloak, standing in the back of the room.

Sokka hesitated. "Uh… okay. Come with me."

Less than gracefully, he hopped down from the chair and waited for the cloaked woman to make her way through the sea of (now chatting once again) people. He contemplated telling the gossipers that there was nothing to see, but dismissed the thought for the reason that they probably wouldn't listen to him anyway.

At long last, the woman made it to the front room, her head bent low. It was then that Sokka's head seemed to spin a little, as if encountering déjà vu. His heart leaped, his breath caught in his throat; he knew that posture, those slightly hunched shoulders, even the nose that was only partially visible beneath her hood.

It was only after he spoke that he realized he had spoken louder than he'd meant to. "_Toph?!_ Is that really y– _agh!_"

Quick as lightning, the Blind Bandit reached blindly up and grabbed him by the first thing her hand grasped, which happened to be his collar. A gasp escaped Sokka as she pulled him down to eye-level.

"Does the cloak mean nothing to you?" she hissed, incensed. "I don't need the whole hospital to know I'm here. You know how mentioning our names make people crazy!"

Sokka tried to answer, but the grip on his shirt kept him from breathing properly. Aware that his face had begun to turn purple, he reached up and gently tried to ease Toph's iron grip. Her hands were rough, he noticed, but not in a bad way. If he hadn't been suffocating, he may have smiled.

"…Ch-choking!" he managed to gasp.

Toph's eyebrows shot up (though he couldn't see them beneath the cloak). She released his collar and let her hand fall back to her side. Sokka gasped and grabbed his throat where the fabric of his shirt had rubbed his skin.

"Come on, let's go," she said. "I doubt we have much time to do… whatever it is we're doing."

Sokka nodded, forgetting that she could not see it, and followed her as she took off down the hallway in the direction of Katara's room, where Aang was probably still dealing with the medics. A flicker of a smile crossed his face for the first time since he'd heard about his sister. For some reason, though he could not put a finger on _why_, the very presence of the greatest Earthbender in the world comforted the worried warrior like nothing else had.

-

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A/N: If there's anything that I can do to write better, anything you think I need to touch up on, let me know! 


	3. Into the Void

A/N: As promised, here's your chapter! I just got back today, so I just couldn't bring myself to proofread well. Sorry for any mistakes - I can barely keep my eyes open. This chapter is mostly character development and a bridge between main chapters, so yeah. Feel free to point out errors if you see them, so I can get on with the fixing.

The copius amounts of fan fiction I expected to make over vacation was oddly disappointing, though I did write out a six-age oneshot that I still need to type and post in "Onehshot Shorts".

I also read _Deathly Hallows_ yesterday, but this is not the place to discuss it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Happy Reading!

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_Chapter Three – Into the Void_

"…And that's it?"

The Blind Bandit's head was pointed slightly down so that her unseeing eyes stared into the ground between Sokka and Aang's hospital chairs. She seemed completely unmoved by the story that Aang had just told her, unmoved by the idea of venturing into the Spirit World.

Sokka and Aang shared a somewhat confused look before Aang slowly turned back to Toph. "Well, yeah. That's pretty much it."

At this, Toph shrugged and stood up. "Well, we'd better get moving. I assume the Spirit World has a night time, and I don't want to have to guide you two through the dark right away."

At this comment, Aang's eyebrows rose. "Uh, Toph…?" He shot Sokka a look.

"Toph, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but…" Sokka trailed off. He didn't particularly want to be the subject of the woman's anger, especially since they'd just re-met after a long break. "There's no Bending in the Spirit World."

The look of mingled surprise and fear flitted across Toph's face for the first time. "What do you mean 'there's no Bending in the Spirit World'?"

"I mean exactly what I said. No Bending." When Toph did nothing, he took a few steps to close off the distance between them and gingerly rested a hand on her shoulder. "Look, Toph, I can understand if you don't want to come with us –"

"No." Toph batted his hand out of the way with a sharp slap. He grimaced and rubbed his hand where she had come in contact with it. "I'm going with you."

At this, Aang felt that it was time for him to speak up. Silently scolding himself for not having mentioned the rather important fact to Toph before, he opened his mouth, mulled over his words for a moment, and said, "Are you sure? I mean, we'd love to have you with us, but if you can't see –"

She silenced him with a deadly glare that was focused just over his left shoulder. "_Yes_," she said firmly. "I don't care of one of you has to carry me on your back. Katara's my friend too."

A pregnant silence ensued. Finally, Aang nodded.

"Fair enough," he said. "But let's get going, then. We don't have much time."

Aang turned and walked to his unconscious wife's side. He placed the backs of his fingertips on the side of her cheek; her skin was losing some of its color and warmth, as if her very life was draining from her body. Not caring that Sokka was watching, for the warrior had gotten more or less used to it over the years, Aang leaned over and placed the lightest of kisses on Katara's lips. His heart cried out in his chest.

"I love you, Katara," he breathed, running a hand over her forehead and pushing back her messy hair. He kissed her forehead and straightened up. "I'll see you soon. I promise."

When he turned around to face his friends, jaw set, Sokka clapped his hands together.

"Well guys, it looks like we're going on another crazy quest!" he said. Only this time, he was a more-than-willing to participant. "So Aang, let's make with the glowing and get us to the Spirit World, before my positive attitude dies." He waited from a response from Aang. Aang shifted where he stood and took a deep breath. Sokka raised his eyebrows. "…You don't know how to get us there, do you?"

Aang shuffled one foot and scratched his head. "Well, I know how to get myself there, but I've never tried taking anybody else there with me."

"What, not even Katara?" Sokka rubbed his eyes in exasperation. "You've never gone on a nice picnic in the Spirit World, Aang?"

"It's not exactly a romantic place, Sokka."

"Great, Aang. That's just great," Sokka deadpanned.

"Couldn't you two have thought of this before?" snapped Toph, who was still fuming about her forthcoming blindness.

"Sorry, but I was a _little_ preoccupied with my dying wife!" Aang defended himself with equal venom. He paused then, closed his eyes for a brief moment, and took a deep breath. They weren't getting to the Spirit World any faster this way. He looked at his two unhappy friends, and then within himself. The three of them were feeling the same pain – perhaps pain in different forms, and for different reasons – but the same pain. "Look, let's not fight; it's not getting us anywhere. I'm sure I can figure it out. We'll just go back to my place and set things straight from there. Agreed?"

Toph gave a noncommittal shrug. Sokka nodded.

"Okay then. Let's go."

-

Evidently the crowd had figured out who was underneath the dark cape, and that it meant that the legendary group of four was back together again, because when Aang opened the door to the waiting room he found a mass of gossipers standing there. Some held writing utensils and scrolls, and others merely stood there with large grins on their faces. One man, a burly fellow in his early thirties, stepped forward with scroll at the ready.

"Rumor has it that you, young lady, are the legendary Blind Bandit, Earthbender extraordinaire and hero of the war!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, rounding on a cloaked Toph. "Can you confirm or deny this rumor?"

Instead of replying, Toph pointed two fingers at the ground and drew her hand in a horizontal line in front of her, effectively parting the surprised crowd. A small smirk was barely visible beneath her hood; Aang almost grinned as well. Toph gestured to Aang and Sokka, and together the three of them rushed past the man ("I can't believe it! The Blind Bandit moved me with her awesome Earthbending skills!"), through the parted crowd, and out the door.

Once the front doors of Ba Sing Se Hospital burst open, the three friends broke into a run. Aang, having always been naturally fast, was in the lead with Sokka and Toph close behind.

For the last six years, Aang had been overwhelmed with the post-war effort. Only very recently, with the help of Katara, had he finally managed to reinstate the Fire Nation's fair government under Fire Lord Zuko. Since that benchmark, along with a nice treaty that bonded the nations in peace, Aang had finally been able to settle down and set his focus on his wife instead of solely on his job as Avatar.

When the treaty had finally been signed by the leads of the nations, Katara had been just as relieved as Aang. Although the pair had been engaged as soon as Aang had turned sixteen, they had had to wait for another year before being wed. Katara had never allowed the wait to bother her, however; even though they had not been officially married until just over a year ago, they had acted as though they had been a couple for all of their lives.

This mindset had bothered Sokka only a little during times of travel, for he had often stumbled upon the pair while out hunting or looking for firewood. The Warrior, after finding that his various methods of scolding and threatening the Waterbender and the Avatar were less than effective, merely took to loudly announcing himself whenever coming across a clearing or the campsite. In the past year, Sokka had also settled down in Ba Sing Se and found a job as a manufacturer of Water Tribe tools. The shop he owned and ran with a handful of employees and metalworkers flourished in a short amount of time, as Water Tribe tools were both inexpensive and effective for everyday use. In fact, he had been working in the shop when a messenger had burst in, yelling about the late Ozai's loyalists.

Sokka spoke up after a few minutes running. "Wouldn't it be faster if you flew us?" he asked, pointing to the staff in Aang's hand.

"No," Aang replied. "We're all a lot bigger than we were six years ago. And besides, we're almost there."

"Where are we going, exactly?" Toph asked, loudly enough so that Aang could hear her from where he ran up ahead. Her hood had blown off at some point, revealing a haphazard bun that bounced as she ran.

Aang didn't glance back. "My house," he shouted. "It's just at the bottom of this hill, by the river. Ah, there!"

Aang reached the crest of the hill first, and stopped in his tracks so that Toph and Sokka could catch up. At the bottom of the hill, nestled between one of Ba Sing Se's small rivers and a jumble of other houses, was the house he had shared with Katara for the past year. It was a small house – just the right size for the pair of them and Sokka, if he stopped by.

Sokka stopped abruptly, nearly crashing into Aang in the process. Toph stopped beside them a split second later, and the three of them took off again down the hill towards the house.

At the bottom of the hill, Sokka upped his pace in an attempt to catch up to Aang. The Avatar, though, had already reached the foot of his house, leapt up the steps, and stopped at the front door. Sokka and Toph took an extra few seconds to catch up, and when they did, Aang pulled a small key out of his pocket and began fiddling with the door handle. Sokka, meanwhile, turned his back on Aang and scanned the area. His heart beat rapidly in his chest from the run from the hospital.

Beside him, Toph faced the wall, seemingly unbothered by the run nor the circumstances. However, both Aang and Sokka knew better than to trust Toph's seeming indifference; during the war, she had become so apathetic towards even her friends that it clouded their minds even in battle, when concentration was key.

"What are you doing, Sokka?" she asked, not sounding particularly curious.

Sokka raised one hand to shield the sun from his eyes and peered around through narrowed eyes. "I'm making sure that nobody followed us."

"Nobody did."

He turned to her just as Aang unlocked the door and pushed it open. "How do you…? Oh, right. I guess it's been a while since we've seen each other."

"Yeah." She began to follow Aang into the house. "It has."

Sokka paused before he followed her through the doorway, unsure of what her tone of voice had conveyed. Hesitant but not put out, he tore his eyes from Toph, who stood about a head shorter than he, and looked around the main room.

The house was as small on this inside as it appeared on the outside, with only five and a half rooms to it. A sort of open room took up the vast majority of the house. Near the far side was a small kitchen, and three doors lead to two bedrooms and a small bathroom. Sokka had helped Aang and Katara move into the house, and at the time they had owned little more than a bag of belongings each; they had, after all, been traveling for the last five years. Now the house had a homey feel to it, with different relics from all over the world scattered around.

"Nice place you got here," Toph observed. "Smells like lunch is ready."

"Yeah…"

Aang wiped his face and mouth with one hand and looked around the room like a lost man. Katara's eminent death seemed so surreal to him, even after he had held her cold hand just minutes previous. Had she really stood in that small kitchen less than two hours ago, making lunch for the pair of them? Had he really promised her that very morning that he would come home early for lunch so they could have a bite to eat and maybe take a ride on Appa before he had to return to the city's government establishment? Had she not, _that very morning_, agreed that it was a great idea and, giggling as he continued to put well-placed kisses on her neck, pushed him good-naturedly off the bed? Aang shook his head to bring himself back to the present. He had to get three people to the Spirit World, and while he assumed it would not be that difficult, he knew that it would still require his undivided attention.

He turned around and wiped his hands nervously on his tunic.

"First, we need to get some food together. Grab whatever you think we'll need and put it in the knapsacks," said Aang, pointing to a small closet door. "I've got to talk to Appa, and then we'll figure out what to do from there."

Sokka nodded and ran off towards the closet while Toph made for the kitchen. Aang watched his friends for only a moment before running towards the back door, through which Appa and Momo were undoubtedly sleeping.

-

Getting to the Spirit World turned out to be rather simple. Aang had been there enough times of his own to know roughly what he had to do. The others would be brought just by the touch of his hand, as long as he had contact with him when he crossed over. It was only a matter of getting both Toph and Sokka in a meditative state, which took a good hour and a lot of incense, and then getting himself into the Spirit World. The real problem was that once they got there, they were more or less lost.

The Spirit World seemed little more than a strangely colored swamp with the occasional strange animal to Sokka, who had been expecting some strange anti-gravity world; he was rather disappointed, and stated as much.

"I don't know why you're complaining," Toph said from where she stood, and had been standing, rooted, since they arrived there a few minutes beforehand. "I'm _glad_ it's nothing special. Less for me to not see and feel."

Sokka shrugged. "I'm not complaining. I just thought it would be, I don't know, weirder." He paused and looked around. A shudder coursed down his back. "Not that it's not really weird, but still…"

Keen on changing the subject, Sokka tore his eyes from the dark trees and set them on Aang, who seemed somewhat confused. Aang glanced at Sokka, saw that the warrior was watching him, and turned away.

"I'm looking for some sort of direction to the End," announced Aang loudly, as if speaking not only to Sokka and Toph but to the entire forest. "If any of you past Avatars are listening, a little help would be greatly appreciated!"

"What, are you expecting Roku to pop in and hand out road maps?" Sokka asked, exasperated and sarcastic. "Hey, maybe Kyoshi will come and hammer a sign to a tree for us. And while they're at it, I could go for a Spirit World sandwich or something because—"

"I think what Sokka is trying to say, Aang, is are you really expecting a map to just pop out of the ground or something?"

As if her words had sparked it, an array of twisting vines rose up from the ground, writhing like dark snakes. Sokka yelled out in surprise and, thinking that some Spirit World monster was ambushing them, pulled out his machete to chop the vines, but Aang flung out his arm and Sokka stopped in his tracks with his machete still held high.

"Just watch."

The vines rose up, twisting around each other until they formed a pole-like structure standing three feet tall from the ground. Then, the vines moved to the left with a strange slithering sound until they formed an arrow atop the vine pole, an arrow pointing to the left.

Sokka's jaw dropped. "But—but…!"

Toph looked almost panicked, and very defenseless. And bent her knees in her Horse Stance and braced herself. "What, what is it?" She asked, the quaver in her voice unmistakable. "What's going on?"

Aang, on the contrary, looked quite pleased. He scooped up his knapsack off the ground and shouldered it, an amused smile playing on his lips. "Ask, and you shall receive. Let's go, guys. It looks like we've finally got the right directions."

"I don't know, Aang. It could be someone—or some_thing_—trying to trick us—" Sokka began, but Aang had already begun to trek through the woods. Sighing uneasily, he turned to the Blind Bandit. "Come on, Toph."

Toph stood, unmoving, as if she had not heard him. "I can't Earthbend, Sokka," she muttered. "I'm really and truly _blind_."

Sokka paused thoughtfully, then walked over to his friend. He slipped his hand into hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Come on, Toph. Let's go save Katara."

At first, Toph did nothing. Then, after a moment, she returned his hand squeeze and allowed him to guide her towards Aang, into the unknown boundaries of the Spirit World's forest.

-

* * *

A/N: It's good to be back, guys. Mmm... sleepytime. Next chapter up hopefully soon, and maybe some other stuff as well. 


	4. The Man at the Bridge

A/N: As usual, I apologize for the delay in chapters, if you still even follow this story (which I hope you do, seeing as I worked my butt off to write it!). Summer is typically a busy time for me, between work and copious trips and what have you. But I finally cracked down and finished it, though I had to use a camera memory card to transfer it over to this computer with internet access, as I forgot my flash drive.

So yeah. Oh, and bonus points to those of you who recognize the reference I made to something I wrote in another story! In fact, if you don't pick up on it, one of the lines in this chapter may seem somewhat awkward to you. But that's okay. Onward!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Happy Reading!

* * *

_Chapter Four – The Man at the Bridge_

In the Spirit World, there was no night, and no day. The strange sun hung orblike in the sky at all hours, and though it shed no real warmth, they were still forced to retreat from its light beneath the trees when they needed to stop for rest. Even in the dark, sleep did not come easy for the three, whose hearts were full of worry and anxiety; the remaining time had diminished to mere hours.

Sokka's rumbling stomach snapped him out of his light snooze. He sat up, rubbing his eyes and peering around into the unfamiliar woods. Aang had already awoken, if he had even fallen asleep—it had only been a half-hour break, after all—and seemed to be ready to go. Toph slept on, though, her body curled up on the hard ground. Sokka's eyes scanned her over once, taking in everything over the years they had been separated, and came to rest on her feet, which were caked in a normal layer of dust and dirt. Sighing, he reached over and gave her shoulder a gentle shake.

"Hey, wake up, Toph. We've got to go," he said.

Groaning, Toph rolled over and opened her pale eyes.

"I _just_ fell asleep," she muttered, as if being awoken was causing her extreme agony. "We've been walking for hours!"

"Sorry Toph, but we've only got a few hours," Aang responded. He strode over, swinging his backpack around his shoulders as he did so. "We'll stop again after we cover some ground."

Aang's suddenly hopeful attitude told her that she wouldn't be getting any sleep any time soon, so Toph sighed deeply, paused, and clambered to her feet. She knew she wouldn't be complaining, at least out loud, to anybody; she hadn't argued her rights to be allowed to come just so she could be a burden, and she didn't intend on being one. Besides, she wanted to help Katara just as much as the others.

"Let's just keep moving."

-

They had not been traveling long, Aang at the lead with Toph and Sokka close behind, when Toph gave a strangled yell and froze in place. The grip she'd had on Sokka's backpack tightened, and that in combination with her shout caused him to stop, spin around, and ask what was wrong just as Aang did likewise.

Toph took a moment to reply, and when she did her voice was strained. "Stepped on something—a stick, I think. It's not bad, though, I can wal—_ow!_ Agh! What _is_ it?"

Aang had already run over and dropped to his knees in front of her by the time she'd asked what was in her foot. They had forgotten that she was barefoot when they'd left, though Aang doubted that she would have wanted to wear a pair of Katara's old shoes anyway.

"Lift your foot," he ordered calmly.

Toph did so, and he propped her foot up on his knee to get a better look—she lost balance and teetered backwards for a moment, only to be steadied by Sokka's large hands. She winced slightly as he prodded the area around the hole in her foot, out of which a piece of a stick was poking and a trickle of blood already beginning to flow. This would require that they stop again, and sooner rather than later.

After a few more moments of examination, Aang sighed and released Toph's foot.

"You stepped on a stick," he informed her. Toph's lips twitched downward, as if this news were embarrassing, which it must have been for her. "Sokka and I can take it out, but we'll need to stop. If we just cover a little more ground, we can find a place to stop and fix it." Toph nodded and placed her foot gingerly on the ground with a grimace. Aang then added, casting a wary look about him, "Yeah… this isn't the place for first aid. Can you walk on it?"

"I think so," replied Toph. She put her weight on her foot and aimed a small smile just over Aang's shoulder. "It's fine, don't worry about me," she said.

His eyes lingered on the Blind Bandit for a few moments longer before he finally nodded, stood up, and began to walk again. As the sound of his light footsteps faded, her smile did likewise. The pain in her foot was pulsating more so than anything else, but it was nonetheless painful to put weight on. A small cough off to her left told her that Sokka wasn't buying her pathetic attempts at feigning contentedness. One of his ever-warm hands came to rest on her shoulder. Her heart fluttered at his breath in her ear.

"Painful?"

The one whispered word made her tilt her chin down an inch or so.

"Extremely."

"Here, hold up a second."

Next came a grunt from Sokka and a whoosh of air next to her ear—she instinctively ducked out of the way.

"Okay, put this backpack on," Sokka instructed.

If Toph was confused, she hid it well because she slung the backpack on her shoulders without word or question. He then stepped on front of her, turned around, and sank down on one knee.

"Climb on, Toph."

Finally, some of her confusion shone through an otherwise solid expression. "What?" she asked, eyebrows shooting up in surprise at his gentle command.

Sokka smiled. "I'm going to carry you on my back, just until we can stop and get that tree out of your foot." When no reply came, he shot a glance over his shoulder and was both surprised and thrilled—though he would deny it with all of his willpower if asked—to see that the faintest of blushes had risen to her cheeks.

_Now that's something you don't see every day_, he thought wryly. "Really, Toph, I don't mind. You're not heavy, and neither is the backpack."

Toph said nothing, but instead nodded and reached blindly out for his shoulders. She found them, and then used them as a guide to fasted her arms securely around him. On Sokka's count to three, she pushed off the ground and jumped. He caught her, hands wrapped beneath each of her knees, and stood up with a small grunt of effort. She wasn't heavy, no—after all, she couldn't have been taller than five two and was in excellent shape, he mused—but still, she was not the Toph Bei Fong he'd known all those years ago.

"Well, the backpack isn't heavy, anyway," he joked, purposely putting a deal of strain into his voice.

Toph cuffed him around the head—he gave a loud "oof!" and laughed—and growled, smirking nonetheless, "Shut up."

Still laughing, and laughing for perhaps the first time since they'd arrived here in the Spirit World, Sokka started after Aang.

-

It did not take long for Aang to find a place to stop: a small, circular clearing on the edge of the woods. However, while Sokka tended to Toph and her wounded foot, Aang walked away to the edge of the clearing and began to pace in long strides, head bent low. Surely his heart had not stopped fluttering since he arrived in this dismal place. His nerves had been on end to begin with, and had only continued to fray as time wore shorter. If he lost Katara after all of this… he supposed there were several insane asylums in Ba Sing Se that would take him.

Of course, there was still the reason he had been granted this opportunity in the first place; under normal circumstances it was usually more honorable to accept death—with the exception of Kuruk, apparently, though Aang figured there was always an exception to the rule—but an entire race couldn't be allowed to die out. Just days ago he and Katara had spoken of starting a family, seeing as the late Fire Lord Ozai's loyalists had finally been under control for a while, and the pair of them had come to a point in their marriage where children would have been a welcome gift. Due to the close spiritual connection that the Airbenders had with the Spirit and Physical Worlds, any child they could have was more or less guaranteed to be blessed with the gift of Bending. _Any_ child, Bending or otherwise, would have been welcome, as long as it was Katara's and Aang's. But without her…

Well, he mused darkly, there was always remarriage. It was the second-to-last thing he wanted to do—right after let some random women have his babies, which he hardly considered to be an option—but he would have to do what he'd have to do to save his race.

Aang stopped his pacing. The prospect was too horrible to even think about the possibility of it being real only made it harder for Aang to contain that swollen feeling in his chest. Frowning, he cast one last glance at the orange sky and resumed, hands clasped behind his back, pacing.

Meanwhile, Sokka had pulled the bit of twig from Toph's foot and was in the process of cleaning the wound, which had yielded a considerable amount of blood. He wiped it clean with a pair of spare socks and ripped of a long strand of fabric from one of the shirts they'd been carrying in Aang's backpack. Neither Toph nor Sokka spoke for a long time. A sort of semi-awkward, pensive silence had engulfed both of them, and both had taken to it in different ways. Toph settled back against a tree trunk and closed her eyes, Sokka watched his hands as they began to wind the cloth around her foot. One question in particular stood out in his mind, had stood out in his mind since he saw her there in Ba Sing Se Hospital—in all honesty, a ton of questions had leapt to his tongue, but the situation itself had erased them all. Now, though, he finally had a proper moment and was more or less alone with Toph for the first time in all these years.

Sokka drew in a shuddery breath and looked up at Toph's pretty face. He was alarmed to find that he was genuinely nervous—oh, how Katara would have teased him!

"Hey, Toph?" Toph made a grunt-like noise as an affirmation that she was, in fact, listening. _Can she feel my hands shaking?_ Sokka stopped winding the cloth to adjust the sock that he had used as pre-wrap. "Why… why did you leave?" he asked hesitantly. "It was just so out of the blue. One day you just came up to me with your bag packed, told me that you were leaving and that it wasn't our faults, told us not to follow you, and then you just sort of… left."

He felt Toph tense up beneath his hands. Her head bent forward, milky eyes facing her lap.

"I had to," she breathed. "I had to get away for a while. Be alone."

"A _while_? You were gone for nearly five years!" exclaimed a flabbergasted Sokka, loudly but not enough for Aang to hear. "Where did you even go?"

Toph frowned, sat up uncomfortably, and retorted, "I traveled for a while, all over the Earth Kingdom, then eventually got an apartment in Gaoling and stayed there for a year or two."

"So why were you at the hospital?" Intrigued, Sokka began to tie the bandage without looking and succeeded in tying a part of his own shirt into the wrap. He glanced down, cursed as he saw his error, and began to untie it again.

"I was in the city and I heard a group of people talking about how the Avatar's wife had been attacked, and that she was at the hospital."

"I see." He paused. "But why _exactly_ did you leave us in the first place?"

The frown on her face deepened so much that he suddenly had to fight the rising impulse to reach out and pull her small frame—a more filled-out frame than six years ago, but still smaller than broad-shouldered Sokka's—to his in a tight hug. But instead of doing that, which may have been awkward in this particular circumstance, he glanced downward to make sure that he was re-wrapping her foot the right way this time.

Toph sighed and furrowed her eyebrows. "I couldn't stop thinking about the war. I _killed_ people, Sokka, felt their hearts and their lives just… stop. I was only _twelve_, for crying out loud! And people were trying to kill _me!_"

She was clearly getting worked up about this, realized Sokka. No, her voice hadn't gotten any louder, but on the inside she must have become hysterical.

"And when you got stabbed right after Fire Lord Ozai was killed, I thought you were going to die—we all did. Even a year later, it was all too surreal. I couldn't handle the feeling of…" She trailed off for a moment, "_attachment_. I couldn't handle it, it was too intense. I thought that if I left and traveled the Earth Kingdom like I'd wanted to as a kid, challenging the best Earthbenders of all time and living off my winnings, that it would make me, I don't know, _harder_ or something. So, one day, I packed up and left."

Sokka stopped wrapping her foot now. His heart was hammering so loudly in his chest that he was sure she could feel it; he let go of her foot and stared at the silent Earthbender—the silent woman—before him. Of all the things he had gotten from her responses, only one thing was perfectly clear to Sokka, whose heart and brain seemed to be working as a single unit for once: she had felt that attachment to _him_, had left for a number of years to stop thinking about _him_, and she had failed. Which meant that, surely—

"Toph…" his voice faded. "When you left, I… Do you still—?"

"How's it coming, Sokka?"

Both Sokka and Toph jumped in alarm and turned their heads towards Aang, who Sokka had not, in his semi-trance, seen or heard walk up to them. And evidently, from the surprised look etched on her face, Toph hadn't heard him either.

Sokka hastily finished the tie on Toph's foot and sat back. "Done!" he announced.

Aang nodded. "Great! Now let's get moving."

"Right." Sokka scrambled to his feet and offered his hand to Toph, who didn't respond to the gesture. Then he remembered why and gave her a sharp prod in the side, embarrassed. "Come on, Toph."

Toph wordlessly held out her hand for him to take. He did so, guiding her to her feet and offering the support she needed until she could test her foot. Toph put her weight on the foot gingerly at first, jaw set against the pending pain, then balanced the weight out and nodded.

"Perfect," she said.

That was enough for Sokka and Aang. Again they began to briskly walk, not entirely sure that they were heading the right way or of how long they had left to get there.

-

Then, at long last, after many hours of nonstop walking and aching feet, something came in to sight that none of them had seen since they'd arrived in the Spirit World. Amidst the typical roots and trees of the Spirit World forest was a single wooden bridge, which stood over a foot gap in the ground that Aang assumed must have been a river at some point. But there was no river now, and the bridge looked unnecessary, even silly. Atop one of the bridge's rails sat a man. Only, this man was like no other that they had ever seen, because his arms appeared to be those of a bear. Sokka tightened his grip on Toph's hand, but nevertheless followed Aang towards the unnecessary bridge.

When they reached the foot of the bridge, Aang bowed low and greeted the man. "My name is Aang, the last of the Air Nomads and the Avatar. Are you the Guardian of the Pass?"

The man closed his eyes and nodded. "It is I. And you are the bridge between the Spirit and Physical Worlds, much like my bridge separates the paths to the living and the dead," he observed in a low tone of voice. "Your wife passed this way shortly beforehand. She fought her escorts to the next life with much passion in her soul."

Aang nodded and indulged the surge of pride that coursed through his chest on Katara's behalf. Keeping eye contact with the Guardian was difficult, as the man's eyes had a frightful, empty look about them, as if they did not belong in his head. Come to think of it, realized Aang, many of the body parts on this man seemed unfit for the body; besides the bear arms he bore, the ears were far too small and the legs far too long beneath the fabric of his cloak. The color of his beard was a silvery—contrasting much with the deep brown of the hair atop his head.

Eager to get moving, Aang asked, "Do you need to ask us anything, Guardian?"

The man nodded again, his paws clenching in an odd fashion. "The gates are just beyond this bridge, over the crest of the hill behind me." He gestured behind him, where a massive hill stood. "Only the souls and their escorts may pass without question. Some men try to cross the dried River of the Pass, but those who jump vanish, and those who attempt to fight me suffer an even worse fate. The rest, those who truly wish to pass and are willing to risk anything to do so, must prove that they truly know whom they seek, and may only pass if there is a chance of fetching said soul. My goal is not to trick, but to screen.

"Five questions I shall ask, each pertaining to your wife, Katara of the Water Tribe. Five correct answers shall earn you the right of passage. If you answer incorrectly, however, then I will take the body part most essential to your lifestyle or your survival in the Physical World, the part that means most to your success in living or fighting."

Sokka leaned over a bit and whispered in Aang's ear, "You'd better answer right, Aang, or there'll be no repopulation for you."

Aang grimaced and shifted uncomfortably before looking to the mismatched man again. His blood seemed to run cold at the very sight of him. The small part of him that had hoped the Guardian would allow him to pass because of his status as Avatar had vanished. Now not only was he running against time, but he also stood face-to-face with someone who had the power to take his—

"My first question is this: Who is the woman who assisted in raising Katara until the age of 14?" The guardian didn't seem to move other than to speak.

Aang and Sokka looked at one another, eyebrows raised and the same incredulous thought in their minds: _This was it? This_ was the first of five "difficult" questions? Sokka smirked and turned back to the Guardian.

"Her name is Kana of the Water Tribe, but better known to Katara as Gran-Gran," he said.

The man nodded and the shaggy hair on his head shook around. "That is correct. Next: What alias did Katara use in an attempt to fool the former head of Dai Lee, Long Feng?"

"Uh…"

Had Katara tried to fool Long Feng? If so, she hadn't told Aang or, by the way the warrior was scratching his beard in a puzzled manner, Sokka. Aang glanced at Toph, whose head was still bent low with her eyes focused on the ground. Her face was more or less blank, but the men could tell that she was delving into her memory. Toph eased her hand away from Sokka's and wiped it on her tunic, nervously.

"I think I know…" she began slowly. "Was it—? Yeah, I think so."

"I hope you're sure, because if I lose my hands then I'll have to find a different way to strangle you," Sokka deadpanned.

Toph scowled. "Well it's my guess or we all go, so… the name Katara used in an attempt to fool Long Feng at Bosco's party was Kua Mei."

It was not until the Guardian nodded his approval that Aang realized he had been holding his breath. He let it out, slowly, and closed his eyes in relief. Okay, so perhaps the questions weren't as simple as he and Sokka had assumed, but they were two down with three to go. Hopefully he'd be able to answer the next one without too much—

"In what specific location did Katara and her future husband, Avatar Aang, proclaim their feelings for one another for the first time?"

Oh. Aang felt the blood rush to his face. The question was easy enough to answer—how could he forget that particular memory? It had obviously been monumental to their relationship and a major crutch to his hope at the time—but he'd never told Sokka or Toph, both of whom had been, for lack of a better term, "out of it" at the time, and the situation would seem a little… a little _awkward_ out of context.

Sokka, sensing his friend's unease, crossed his arms across his chest and raised his eyebrows. Toph almost smirked, and probably would have if the situation had not been so desperate or tense. "That's a good question, Twinkletoes."

Aang's heart beat wildly in his chest. Keeping his eyes on the Guardian's mismatched features and pushing away the thought that he'd like to keep this particular information between him and Katara, he intoned, "Katara and I first shared our feelings for one another in our apartment in the Fire Nation—the shower, specifically." He ignored Sokka's sudden repulsed spluttering and added, "She was trying to heal my back at time, and we sort of ended up telling one another."

When the Guardian nodded yet again, Sokka shot Aang a swift glare. "Right under my nose, Aang?"

Aang held up a hand to Sokka without taking his eyes from the Guardian, effectively silencing the indignant brother. "We'll talk later."

Eyes narrowed to slits, Sokka responded, "Yes, we will—"

"But for now, questions," Toph cut in.

"Right, sorry."

Now that all three were once again silent, though each could have sworn that they could hear one another's rapid pulses, all eyes (save for Toph's) turned to the Guardian, whose unblinking stare was fixed on Aang.

"When, specifically, did Katara kill for the first time?"

Another tough one, it seemed, and this time Aang knew that he didn't know the answer. Or, at least, he would need to speak with the others if he wanted to piece together the right answer. He hastily asked the Guardian if he could privately discuss with Toph and Sokka, and when the Guardian nodded he grabbed his friends' arms and spun them around.

"I have a hunch, but I'm not sure," Aang informed them.

Sokka nodded. "Same here. It really could have been when we were fighting the guards to get to the Earth King—remember all those guys we fought?"

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure nobody died in that," Toph added. "A few broken bones, head trauma, and one guy got his nerve pinched in the blocks Aang and me flipped, but nobody died."

"Right, then it must have been when we were fighting Ozai in the Palace. I know that's the first place _I_ killed anybody."

"Yeah, well you couldn't exactly just send a blast of ground or an icicle at somebody's chest, Sokka."

"True enough. But still, when exactly did Katara do it?" Sokka sighed and glanced back at the Guardian, as if the Guardian would give them an answer.

Aang frowned and muttered, "Look, Katara spent most of her time flinging around icicles and, once she ran out of water, blood. I don't think she could have killed somebody with the Water Whip, and drowning somebody is sort of unlikely." He dropped his voice further so that the man could not hear them, though Aang wasn't sure how well those mismatched ears could hear. "I suppose, if we don't know, that we could take an educated guess."

"A guess?" Sokka hissed. "There's too much at stake to be guessing: Katara's life, Toph's feet, my hands, your—!"

"We haven't got any other options, Sokka," Toph reminded him, voice solemn. "I'll answer this one, if you like." In the pause that followed, she allowed herself an ironic laugh. "Maybe he'll take my eyes; it wouldn't make a difference."

Sokka rolled his own eyes. "Pleasant, Toph, but really. What are we going to do?"

Aang felt that swollen feeling in his chest again, only this time it had nothing to do with despair. Or, he mused both silently and without expression, perhaps it was a different type of despair that was associated with hopelessness. Either way, they could only try to piece together the story that makes the most sense and hope that it fit, for Katara's sake as well as theirs.

"Let's just do this." Aang turned around before the others could voice an objection, and said to the Guardian, "The first time Katara killed someone was in the Fire Lord's palace, with a Waterbended icicle."

Toph grabbed on to his arm and held it in her iron grip, her fear transferring to Aang through her sharp nails. The pain seemed distant to Aang, though, who had blocked out everything but the Guardian and his bear claws, the Guardian and his eyes that neither matched nor held expression…

"Very good, Avatar Aang," said the Guardian.

From between Aang and Sokka, Toph gasped slightly and released Aang's arm from her talon-like grip. Sokka put the side of his fist—of the hand that was not holding Toph's—to his mouth and cast his eyes upward, as if silently thanking the Spirits for giving them the right answer. Aang, however, did nothing. Yes, his heart had leapt for joy when he'd been acknowledged, but there was still a last question, and he wanted to have his whole attention on the Guardian of the Pass.

The Guardian took a moment to ask the last question, and when he did a strange pause ensued. "Why did each of you traverse the Spirit World on behalf of one individual?"

Aang's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and when he looked around at his friends he saw that each of them was equally as stunned; Sokka's mouth was hanging slightly ajar, and Toph had lost her rocklike expression. This couldn't be it—it was far too easy of a question! And yet…

The Guardian had specifically said that he did not mean to trick or fool those who truly needed to pass, but to allow only those worthy of doing so. Maybe, he thought, they shouldn't be so surprised at all. Maybe they should have expected it all along.

Aang made to speak, but Sokka beat him to it.

"Katara's my little sister; she means the world to me," he explained. "All my life I've been protecting her and trying to help her grow up, and I came all this way to continue that."

When Sokka finished, Toph piped up next. "Katara and me, we're complete opposites. But we're still best friends, even though we're so different. I couldn't just let my best friend die like that and leave us all behind," she said. "I came all this way because I didn't want to lose my friend."

Toph stepped back beside Sokka and frowned. One of Sokka's large hands came to rest on her shoulder and stayed there while Aang spoke.

"You see, Guardian, I was only told that I could come here because it is my duty, both as Avatar and as the last of the Air Nomads, to repopulate," said Aang. "If I didn't have Katara, my only other options were to remarry, or to just find some other woman to have my children. But really, there's only one real reason I came all this way, across the Spirit World." Aang shrugged and stated simply, "I love her."

The words of the Avatar seemed to ring in the otherwise silence of the World. Then—and the very sight of it frightened Aang more than anything else—the Guardian gave Aang a small smile and bowed low, his bear paws pressed together.

"Sokka, Toph, and Avatar Aang, it is my pleasure to allow you right of passage," he said in what sounded almost like a pleasant tone. "Go quickly across my bridge and fetch your wife, friend, sister."

They didn't need to be told twice. Aang and Sokka shared a quick glance, and then Aang turned back to the Guardian to bow. "Thank you."

Then, on that last note, the Guardian stood aside to let the trio pass. They did so, with Aang in the lead and Sokka and Toph close behind, Sokka leading Toph by the hand as before. Aang had just reached the foot of the hill when he heard the Guardian shout at his back.

"Be aware, Avatar Aang and friends! The escorts are a nasty sort, and will not hesitate to fight you, should you challenge them and their desires."

Aang did not stop. Instead, he waved his hand backwards as a signal that he had heard and understood, and continued to press on up the slope. They traveled wordlessly, Aang wrapped up in his own determined thoughts. The gates were so close that he could almost see them in his mind's eye, even though he had no idea of what to expect.

When finally they did reach the crest of the hill with Aang in the lead, Aang stopped and dropped to his stomach. Sokka, who caught on quickly, did the same, pulling a surprised Toph—she emitted a loud, uncharacteristic squeak of surprise—down with him. Behind the cover of the hill's crest they could watch and formulate a plan with a less chance of being seen.

"You see them, Sokka?" asked Aang.

Sokka narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah, I see them."

Just past the bottom of the hill was Katara, flanked on either side by a burly man. The three of them headed down a long stretch of road towards a towering iron-looking gate, but they were making very slow progress on account of Katara's increased struggling against the men. Previously Aang had doubted that they would catch them in time, but at the rate Katara and her escorts were going it seemed hardly a feat at all that they had caught them, though if they had been but minutes later they would have been too late.

And Katara was putting up a marvelous fight, Aang observed with pride. Her long braid had come loose at some point during her journey, so her long hair whipped around as she struggled against the grip the escorts had on each of her arms. Otherwise, though, she seemed unscathed; the damage that had been done on her body had done nothing on her soul, apparently. Toph's harsh-sounding whisper brought them all back to attention.

"What's the plan?"

At this, Aang rapped his fingers thoughtfully on the grassy knoll. His eyes darted over to the other man. "What weapons have you got, Sokka?" he asked.

"Ah, I'm glad you asked, my friend," Sokka responded, sounding almost cheerful. He yanked the backpack off his shoulders and began digging around in it. "I have the usual, of course—a boomerang, machete, club—then an assortment of throwing knives courtesy of Mai, and this dagger that I took from Zuko back in the Fire Nation." He finished his spiel by pulling the previously mentioned dagger out of its sheath and examining it.

Aang raised his eyebrows. "Did you really bring all of that?"

"Yeah, well I figured we should be prepared anyway," Sokka said, shrugging. He then took one of the throwing knives and handed it to Toph. "Here, Toph, have a knife."

Toph took it and glared over his right shoulder. "Gee, thanks Sokka. I'll try not to stab you with it when I'm waving it blindly around," she quipped.

Aang forced back a quiet chuckle as Toph's words sunk into Sokka's head. His focus was not on Sokka's hasty apology ("Sorry Toph, I forgot again."), but on Katara and the plan he'd yet to hatch. He saw Sokka put his boomerang and its holster on his back in his peripheral vision and turned to his friend.

"No weapons, Sokka; we don't want to hurt them unless we have to," Aang reminded him. "If we can just talk to them, maybe—"

Toph suddenly cut across his sentence, fingers reaching out and grabbing the not-quite-normally-colored grass for no particular reason other than comfort. "Shh!" she hissed. "Listen!"

The trio fell silent, and sure enough, three voices drifted up across the otherwise quiet slope:

"No! Let me go, now!"

"Cut it, sweetheart. We told you a million times: 'aint nobody comin' for you, and there 'aint nothin' you can do about it!"

"Yes, so why don't you just make it easier for us and cooperate, before you make us become unpleasant?"

Katara continued to struggle against her captors, thrashing about and attempting to tug her arms out of their grasps. In the process, the belt of her tunic came loose and a glint of silver flashed before their eyes. One of the escorts yelped; Aang squinted in an effort to see exactly what was going on.

"She's packin'!" exclaimed the first escort. "If we din't have her arms, she'da cut us up already!"

This comment only made Katara struggle more. She continued to hurl insults and objections, hair flying wildly and legs kicking. The escorts seemed unfazed, though, as if her desperate attempts at escape—or just slowing them down. Both seemed possible—were laughable to them.

The second escort bent over and, with his free hand, picked up the knife that had been tucked away in Katara's tunic. He examined it under a critical eye before tucking it in his own belt.

"It seems that we have a bigger problem on our hands than I'd thought, Kumni," said the second escort. A faint smirk appeared on his face. "It's been a long time since a soul has protested quite like this; I think it's best that you search her. Strip her down, Kumni."

The first escort, Kumni, have a hoarse laugh. "You got it!"

Aang was on his feet in a flash, his expression outraged. A bout of adrenaline flooded through his veins, adrenaline that washed away his better judgment in a fit of sudden anger.

"Give me a weapon, Sokka!" he demanded. His hand was held out expectantly towards Sokka, but his eyes remained fixed on the struggling three at the bottom of the hill.

"You said no weapons, Aang!" reminded Sokka, who nevertheless reached into his bag, pulled out his machete, and handed it to Aang.

"And we still need a plan—Katara can take care of herself!" Toph hissed.

"Forget the plan!" Aang twirled the machete in his hand and stuck it in the waistband of his robes. His gray eyes were filled with vengeance, all fatigue gone now. "When they try to violate Katara, they've gone too far. Nobody strips my wife but me!"

With that, he took off down the hill. Sokka grabbed the grass in his fingers and let his head fall on the hill, exasperated.

"Can't you just _try_ to be sensitive when I'm within hearing distance?" he groaned.

Toph was on her feet now, and readjusting her sash. She reached down and grabbed the first part of Sokka that she could, and pulled him up by his ponytail; he gave a shot of surprise and picked his head up. "Come on, Sokka!"

"I'm comin', Toph," he replied, hastily leaping to his feet and taking up his club. He began to run down the hill as well, and Toph grabbed his upper arm for guidance only just in time. "I just wish we had a plan."

The Blind Bandit, laughing, could only reply, "Sokka, when have we _ever_ had a plan?"

* * *

A/N: Yeah, so I wasn't sure when to end this chapter and begin the next one, but I think this is a good place, for reasons you shall understand later. The next chapter will be the last one, and then an epilogue if everything works out according to plan. The next chapter shouldn't be this long, and I hope to update relatively soon. So now I have to go write an action sequence. Yikes! 

Thanks for reading!


	5. Sweet Sacrifice

A/N: I started writing this chapter in the waiting room for my electrolysis appointment. It's never ceases to amaze me how much waiting rooms can inspire one to write.

Anyway, this chapter wrote itself, though I had planned some things beforehand. After this, **there will be an epilogue!**

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Happy Reading!

* * *

_Chapter Five—Sweet Sacrifice_

Halfway down the hill, club drawn and the firm grasp of the Blind Bandit on his sleeve, Sokka tripped and fell. Toph, who had been just as unprepared for the sudden change as he, cried out in surprise as they toppled to the ground. Weapons flew from Sokka's hand and from his bag only to be scattered about the grass like bits of trash. Unfortunately for Aang, who had sort of been relying on a stealthy attack—he had already made it halfway down the hill, and still neither of the escorts had seen him—the escort called Kumni turned around at the sound of Toph's yelp.

Kumni gasped and pointed a finger towards Aang. "Lookit, Chho!"

In the split second that Chho looked away, Katara threw her elbow back as hard as she could. It came in contact with his longish nose, causing a loud, ugly sound to ring through the air. Chho yelled and clutched at his face, but he couldn't stop the blood from gushing from his nose and through his fingers. Katara ran for it.

"She's runnin' off!" shouted a baffled Kumni.

"Get her, you idiot!" Chho cried, sounding both pained and congested, and took off after Kumni.

Meanwhile, Sokka somehow managed to stop tumbling down the hill and scrambled to his feet. He snatched up his boomerang and club, slung his boomerang over his back, grabbed a still bewildered Toph by the upper arm, and pulled her roughly to her feet.

"What was _that_ all about?" Toph gasped.

Sokka began to run once again. "Sorry, I tripped! But those two idiots know we're here now, and Katara's making a run towards us—no!" He gave a frustrated yell; the pace quickened. "The dumb-sounding one's got her again and the other one's catching up."

-

Aang didn't stop at the bottom of the hill. He flew onto the path and ran in the direction of the gates, where the escorts had begun hauling Katara once again. He shouted, but it did nothing for his cause, as it was not until he caught up with them—not a particularly difficult task, given that Katara was putting up more of a fight than ever—that they even acknowledged his presence.

"Back off, Mister," snapped Kumni. "We gotta ferry one more soul through them gates b'fore I can take mah vacatio—_ah!_"

Aang's body acted of its own accord. His arm rose up and brought the dull end of Sokka's machete down onto Kumni's shoulder. The escort yelled out in pain, but his grip on Katara's upper arm only tightened.

"That's a warning," Aang growled. "Release her, or my friends and I will have to hurt you."

Chho's eyes darted to Toph and Sokka, who had caught up with Aang only a moment beforehand. Aang watched as Chho observed the others for a few seconds before turning his eyes back on Aang. "You couldn't beat us—we're armed, we know how to fight. And not even the Avatar—yes, I know you're the Avatar. It's all part of the job, you know—can fight off two specialists."

Katara spoke for the first time from where she stood, still struggling, between her captors; the very sound of her outraged voice gave Aang a fright. "Four on two—it won't be much of a fight," she snarled.

Laughing, Chho gave the Waterbender's shoulder a shake and replied, "Two specialists against one man and three Benders, one of which is not even facing the right direction."

Sokka felt a hand brush the side of his leg and looked down to hear Toph's small whisper, "Am I really facing the wrong way?"

"Um…" Sokka set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a quarter turn to the left. "Not at all, Toph."

The Blind Bandit scowled, but nevertheless clenched her fists for the fight.

Chho laughed again; the sound was awful, as if some sort of animal were wheezing. "Come, Kumni, let us match our quota for safely escorted souls and be done with it."

The situation apparently resolved—at least in the eyes of Chho—the pair began hauling Katara off yet again towards the gates. Aang, Sokka, and Toph stood there for a moment, surprised at not having been taken seriously at all. The machete in Aang's hand drooped momentarily as his grip loosened; he could not, for the life of him, remember the last time he had been brushed off with so little concern. The very astonishment held them all in place for a few seconds until a loud yell from Katara brought them back. Aang started in alarm at another unfamiliar sound; the grand doors of the towering gates were opening, now that they had come so near. Sokka jumped slightly next to Aang, who shot his friend a look and spun the handle of the machete in his hand.

"Let's go, guys."

As they drew closer to the open gates, Aang made an interesting observation: standing on either side of the gate's opening were small clusters of people, their hands gripping the bars from the inside and their faces graced with a polite interest while they watched the squabble unfold. They did not appear hostile, and the colors and styles of their tunics reflected those of the four nations.

Sokka fell into step with Aang, Toph clutching his arm. "Who do you think they are?" he asked quietly.

"They're departed souls that've come to watch the show." Aang narrowed his eyes and picked up his speed, readying his weapon as he did so.

The feeling of boomerang in hand was one that Sokka had not experienced for quite a long time. His fingers slipped over the curved object and settled into a familiar grip, driving even the stares of the dead people from his mind and leaving only the task at hand. He had not had to fight for a while now, but that didn't matter; he was in his own element, and two goons wouldn't be able to hurt him.

"May I?" he asked, already taking aim and holding his pose until Aang answered.

"Aim for the legs," said the Avatar. "I don't want to kill them if I don't have to."

"You got it."

With a very slight grunt of effort, Sokka pulled his arm back, stuck his tongue out, and threw his weapon. When it cut through the air and hit Chho just behind the knee, the escort let out a small gasp and tripped. He pulled Katara down a bit as he stumbled.

Sokka laughed and glanced momentarily down at the Earthbender. "Ready, Toph?"

Toph jerked her head to the side, letting the stray strands of her dark hair blow away from her face. She nodded once. Sokka pried her fingers from his arm, paused a brief moment to reach up and catch his boomerang as it made it's returning journey, and took Toph's hand in his.

"Follow me," he instructed.

The blind girl rolled her unseeing eyes at him, but her hand still tightened on his. "Like I have another option, Snoozles?"

At this, Sokka found himself laughing despite the seriousness of the situation. It was like a blast from the past—the notion that at least one thing was back to normal somehow helped to make him feel a little bolder. "Now _there's_ a name I haven't heard in a long time!"

Meanwhile, Aang darted ahead and grabbed Kumni around the neck with one arm, the machete in his other hand swiveling around and hitting the escort in the side. Kumni gasped and released Katara so that he could free himself. He did so by bending his knees, grabbing Aang's arm—the one with the machete—and pulling it over his shoulder, effectively flipping Aang over him and onto the ground. The escort snatched up the machete and raised it up over his head in preparation to deliver a blow to the fallen Avatar, but instead he let out a yelp as Katara came out of nowhere and knocked him over with a well-aimed kick.

Sokka began to fight Chho, one weaponry expert against another. Chho seemed to have the upper hand, though, because Sokka was both defending himself and Toph, whose hand he still held. It was not until a swipe of Chho's dao knife nearly took Toph's ear off that Sokka thought that maybe he shouldn't have her there.

He released her hand and pushed her roughly out of the fray. "Back off, Toph!" he shouted to her, dodging a blow from his opponent. "And stay away from the gate!"

Though Toph did not look happy at the prospect of being thrown out of the fight, she nodded and proceeded to stand still, listening, with Zuko's dagger at the ready in case someone should attack her.

Chho laughed and swiped his blade at Sokka's abdomen. It missed him only by a hair, and Sokka was forced to jump backwards to avoid it.

"Protecting your girl?" Chho sneered. "Isn't that sweet. _Hah!_" Sokka let out a gasp of pain as the dao knife slashed his forearm, sending droplets of blood down his arm; his club soared out of his hand and skittered across the dirt path. Chho swung his sword around once by its lanyard and thrust it out, but Sokka pulled out his boomerang and deflected the blow.

Sokka dropped to the ground, rolled out of harm's way, and snatched up his club again. "At least I have someone to protect," he retorted, and attacked again.

Aang wiped a stream of blood from his mouth and looked around from where he stood, fighting Kumni. During the process of their fight, they had covered a considerable amount of ground and had ended up right in front of the open gateway. The souls on the other side still watched, some muttering to one another and others merely looking on through curious eyes. Sokka was fighting the other man near the opening of the gate—a collective gasp came from all the souls as Sokka stumbled backwards, almost falling through the entry, and then managed to get his balance back by grabbing the iron bars of the gate and attack again.

"Gotcha!"

Aang spun around again to see that Katara had leapt onto the back of the escort and pulled the front of his tunic up over his own head. Kumni grabbed blindly upward, snatching for Katara's face, but he could not manage to grab hold of her. Aang took this moment as incentive to run over and kick the man's knees out from behind; Kumni fell forward with a grunt—Katara jumped off and landed less-than-gracefully on her feet—and landed on his face. Kumni scrambled for a few moments, but when he finally managed to free his face from his tunic and roll over, he found his nose barely half an inch from Aang's machete.

"Don't. Move. A muscle," growled Aang, his voice low and his expression more dangerous than ever before. Then, a shriek over to his right caused his gaze to avert from his subject, though his machete stayed by Kumni's face.

The scream had come from Toph, whose arm was twisted behind her back and whose neck the second escort held in a headlock. Zuko's knife lay, useless, at her feet. Sokka scrambled to his feet and grabbed his weapon, but he could do nothing.

Chho laughed his terrible laugh again and observed, "Well look at this! An eye for an eye, it seems; I have your fighter and you have mine. Well, that just won't do. Kumni, if you will?"

Aang's eyes widened in surprise as he turned back to Kumni, but the escort acted in a flash. He swung his foot out and knocked Aang's feet out from beneath him. Aang landed on the ground with a loud _thud_, while Kumni leapt to his feet, knocked Katara to the ground, grabbed Aang's machete, and pointed it at the Waterbender's face. Both escorts laughed now.

"That's better," Chho chuckled. "Now, I need one of you four to go through those gates, or I'll snap this one's neck right now."

Even as he said it, he moved his hands so that one held Toph's head and the other arm slung across her waist, rendering her body immobile while using it as a shield at the same time. Her own hands were trapped behind her back, her hair hanging in her face; her sash had loosened somewhat during the fight and hung open, revealing the white shorts and shirt she wore beneath them.

An unfamiliar voice from behind Sokka made them all turn around: "It's not bad here, really."

It was one of the souls that had come to watch the fight. Aang turned his head slightly to the side so that he could see the soul—a woman, actually, dressed in green. "It's actually rather nice, isn't it?" she continued. The other souls nodded in agreement. "No pain, no war, we get to be with our loved ones eternally, and we even get to watch people like you!"

"Shut up, you," warned Kumni to the soul. "Or I'll—"

Chho cut across his accomplice. "No, Kumni, the woman's right; The End is really a nice place. If you all go together, that could be arranged—"

"Sorry, but that's not going to happen." Now Toph spoke up. She sounded slightly strained from having her head turned to one side, but was otherwise fine. "Nobody's going anywhere."

Her captor smirked and leaned his mouth close to her ear (Sokka looked very much as if he'd like to dart forward and attack Chho, but fear of hurting Toph in the process held him back). "And why is that, blind one?" he whispered.

The stench of his rotting breath in her ear made Toph wince. And then—and it happened so quickly that it took the others a few seconds to realize what had happened—Toph pulled one of Mai's knives out of the back of her sash and drove it into her captor's abdomen. Chho gasped in surprise and let go of Toph, who took this moment to step away from him and punch him in the throat. He keeled over, hands clutching his wound and blood seeping through his fingers.

Toph took her horse stance out of habit, knife dripping scarlet that she could not see over her clenched fist, and turned her head in the general direction of the fallen escort, who stared at her in shock. "It's hard to chuck people through the gate when you're bleeding on the ground," she said, then added, "How's it feel to be beaten by a blind girl, huh? And I was aiming for your nose, by the way, but by the sound of it I got you in the neck."

Chho could say nothing at first, and then: "K…Kumni!"

Everyone, Aang included, had been so preoccupied with Toph that they had forgotten about the second escort. Aang turned his head and saw, to his utmost surprise, that Kumni was no longer standing there. The escort had used the commotion as time to make his way over to Sokka, who was the closest to the gate. Katara screamed her brother's name, and Sokka came-to in time to see his attacker run at him from the side. Kumni grabbed the club from Sokka's hand, threw it over his shoulder, and made what appeared to be an attempt to strangle Sokka.

"Sokka, no!" Katara yelled again. She, too, ran forward towards her older brother, but on her way Chho reached out and grabbed her ankle. He pulled, and Katara plummeted to the ground.

Meanwhile, as Aang clambered as quickly as he could to his feet, Sokka and Kumni struggled for a few moments. After a few moments of grunting and fighting, Kumni ducked Sokka's fist, grabbed the latter around the waist, and tackled him. The two men both fell backwards and landed in a heap just inside the gates.

A brilliant flash of light temporarily blinded everyone, and when Aang regained his sight he saw several things happening at once: Katara and Chho had both managed to get up off the ground, Chho holding Katara's arms behind her back and Katara screaming for her brother. Sokka and Kumni both got up as well, and Kumni darted back through the gate and into the Spirit World. When Sokka tried to follow, though, something happened. He struggled against what seemed to be invisible bonds around his wrists and ankles, bonds that held him back from passing through the gate.

Sokka had passed through to The End.

"Sokka, no!" Aang had cried out without realizing, and dashed forward towards the gate's opening. He was stopped, however, when a hand reached out from the side and grabbed his arm with surprising strength. Upon looking down, Aang saw a wide-eyed Toph.

"Don't," she whispered, sounding as if she had gone numb.

Kumni continued to run until he reached Chho. He grabbed Katara and thrust her towards Aang; she collided with him and Aang automatically grabbed her around the waist, though his eyes had not left Sokka as the warrior struggled to break free ("Don't bother, you're stuck now," informed one of the souls).

"Come on Chho, we done matched the quota," rasped Kumni. He grabbed the arm of his accomplice. They both ran—Chho limped, actually, clutching his side all the way—through the gates and disappeared just beyond them.

Silence now. Sokka stopped struggling and stood there, gasping for breath from his efforts. Katara, whose face was streaked with tears, could only stare in shock as Aang had done.

"It's no use," Sokka murmured, looking down at his hands and then out at his friends. "I'm… dead."

Katara clapped a hand over her mouth as if to stifle a scream, but Aang released her and ran up to the gates, being careful to avoid the entrance. He reached out and grasped the bars in his shaking hands, fighting the urge to scream. Sokka couldn't be dead, not when he was standing right there, right in front of him. How many times had they fought together, side by side, and won? They had won this time, too! And yet…

"Sokka." Aang felt the word leave his mouth and felt his breath catch in his throat and felt a piece of his heart crumble in his chest. A whimper from beside him told him that Katara had come up next to him, but he could not even bring himself to acknowledge her.

"It's okay, Aang, really," Sokka replied. He approached the bars of the gate—the other souls all moved over to make way for him—and stared at his friends and sister. "Y-you two need to… to live." He tried to smile, but the end result was a pained expression. "Go home and have a zillion babies, like Roku said you had to."

Katara gave what was between a sob and a laugh, and gripped the bars in front of her. She and Aang both reached out and rested a hand on either one of Sokka's shoulders. This time, Sokka did manage the smallest of smiles. His eyes moved over his sister and Aang's faces, and then moved past to rest on a hunched figure behind them.

"Toph?" he whispered.

Toph said nothing, her head bent low.

"Tell the workers at my shop that I've gone away and left Aang in charge, would you?"

When Toph finally looked up, shaking her head slowly from side to side as she did so, Aang saw that she too bore the tearstains that streaked Katara's face. "I can't do that, Sokka," she replied.

"What? Why not?" he asked. Katara and Aang turned around to face the blind Earthbender as she began to walk towards the gate.

Toph sighed. "I turned my back on you and left for all those years because I was afraid. I didn't want to feel committed, to be attached or have to worry like I did that one time when you were hurt. And it took me five years, but I came to realize that maybe I wanted it after all. Maybe I wanted to let myself feel the way Twinkletoes and Sugar Queen about each other. That's why I came back to Ba Sing Se: to try again. I'm not afraid anymore. And if I have to go through those gates to do it, then… then I guess that's what I'm going to do."

Sokka's jaw dropped in surprise. "But, but Toph! What about your family and—and your Earthbending tournaments?"

For the first time, Toph let a smile rise to her face. "It's worth it, trust me."

Before anybody could say a word and before Sokka had the time to reply, Toph reached out her hands and began to walk. She moved forward, slowly, feeling around in front of her for the gate, and when she finally gripped it in her hands she walked along until she found the opening. A second flash of blinding light told them all that Toph had just willingly walked through.

Sokka stood there, as if rooted to the spot. Toph stopped just beyond the gates and stared down at her hands for a few moments, as if baffled by some stunning equation. After a few moments, she slowly brought her chin up and set her eyes on a nonplussed Sokka.

"What's wrong?" he asked, confused. Katara seemed to be a beat ahead of the men; she gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I…" Toph broke off, looking down at her hands again briefly before moving them to each of her friends in turn. "I can _see_."

"You can _what_?" Aang gaped.

One of the souls piped up from behind Sokka. "Although there is no Bending in The End, there are no ills. Physical handicaps mean nothing here; the deaf hear, the broken walk, and the blind see."

Sokka laughed aloud for the first time since arriving in The End and ran towards Toph. He bent his knees, picked her up—she gasped in surprise and grabbed his shoulders for fear of falling—and spun her around in a circle. After a few seconds, Toph too laughed and threw her arms around Sokka's neck. When he set her down, they turned to Katara and Aang, both of whom watched with the saddest of smiles.

"You guys go on," said Toph, her smile fading slightly. She sought Sokka's hand and grasped it in her own. "I'm going to miss you guys and I'm going to miss Earthbending, but Sokka and I… well, we've got a lot of catching up to do."

Katara nodded and wiped a tear from her cheek. "Tell mom and dad that I love them, Sokka," she said.

Sokka nodded. "Best of luck to you both."

"And to you," Aang responded, releasing the bars from his grasp to bow. Katara, Sokka, and Toph all followed his lead, and after many more goodbyes and a kiss on the cheek from Katara to her big brother, Katara and Aang turned away.

The pair walked in silence to the end of the path until they reached the bottom of the hill. At this point, Aang turned to Katara and placed two fingers on her forehead.

"Close your eyes and clear your mind," he whispered to her.

Katara nodded in response, closed her eyes, and sighed. Aang began to feel them both fading away, and as he did, he looked back once more to see Toph and Sokka standing together, watching them from behind the gates. Aang smiled and allowed a pair of tears to fall before he closed his eyes and turned away for the last time.

_Goodbye, my friends, and good luck._

-

The very next thing he knew, Aang was standing in his own house, exactly where he had left. Only this time, when he opened his eyes, he found Katara standing there in front of him.

"How did your body get here?" he asked, more to himself than to his wife. He glanced backwards to where Toph and Sokka's now lifeless bodies should have been on the floor, and instead saw them lying side by side on a mat, their arms folded across their chests. "And how did they…?"

At this, Katara smiled and held up a tiny scroll. "This was tied to my neck," she answered.

Aang took the scroll in his hands, unfurled it, and was only slightly surprised by what he saw. A plume of flame was sketched on the surface, and underneath it two words were scrawled: Avatar Roku. Aang chuckled to himself and raised his eyes to tell Katara that the people over at Ba Sing Se hospital were probably not going to be very happy when they found her hospital bed empty, and then it hit him with the force of a ten-ton flying bison:

Katara.

The full weight of everything that had happened in the last hours was summed up in that one, three-syllable word. Roku's note slipped from Aang's shaking fingers as he gazed upon his wife, the woman that he had gone to the end of the Spirit World for. She stood before him now, a small, bittersweet smile playing on her lips and tears streaming down her face. All in all, though her hair was a mess from lying in that hospital bed, Aang couldn't help but think that he had never seen a more beautiful person in all his life.

"Katara…" The single word slipped from his mouth as if he had said it for the first time, seen her for the first time.

The Waterbender stepped forward half a pace. "Aang."

Then—and again Aang found his body acting of it's own accord without first asking permission from his mind to do so—he took a step forward, reached out, and pulled her against him in the tightest embrace that he could manage without hurting her. And before he knew it, Katara had wrapped her arms around his torso and begun sobbing into his shoulder. The bubble of emotion that he had been fighting all along finally burst and poured from within his chest, and Aang found himself weeping just as much as she. Katara's legs seemed to give out next, sending them both sinking slowly to their knees. His still-shaking fingers reached up and intertwined in her soft hair.

"Katara," he quietly gasped, closing his eyes and feeling several more tears leak from them, "I thought I was going to lose you. I thought… I thought…"

Katara pulled only far enough away so that she could look into his gray eyes and speak to him, but no words would come. Instead, Aang leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, tasting the salty wetness of their combined tears.

"Katara—" he choked back a sob. "I love you so much, Katara."

Katara reached up and placed a hand on either side of his face. She then rose up on her knees and placed a kiss on his forehead, right at the tip of his arrow. "Aang…" she sank back down to eye-level. "I love you so much, Aang."

That night would be filled with more tears and kisses that Aang would ever bother to count. They cried for life and they cried for those whose lives were lost on the way, but mostly they cried for one another. In the morning, perhaps things would be different. When the sun rose up over the world, giving the warmth that the Spirit World could not, they would take care of Toph and Sokka, and try to explain why Katara had mysteriously vanished from the hospital, but not that night. That night, it was just Aang and Katara, just husband and wife, just two lovers that, when the morning did arrive, would be able to face the world, so long as they had each other.

-

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A/N: You're probably drowning in the sappiness of this chapter, and if you're not into that sort of thing, then I apologize. Please tell me if you spot any errors, as self-editing is a lot harder than getting a beta, and I tend to miss things! Also, action scenes are terribly difficult to write. I was originally planning on letting everyone go home happy, but that's not how I roll, so I waved my death stick around and poof! 

Here's my logic for the whole "Toph sees" thing: It just sort of happened. I was debating whether or not Bending would be in The End, and when I decided that it wouldn't, then I was like "Well, Toph is about to give everything up for this. She has no idea of Bending is allowed, but she's still willing to be completely blind for the rest of eternity as long as she can be with Sokka. So, I call this scenario "Compensation", because good deeds are rewarded.

So I hope you liked it, and I have already begun the rough draft of the epilogue. Thanks for reading!


	6. Epilogue

A/N: Yes, we have finally reached the end. I wanted to get this up sooner, but my life has become so stressful lately that all I have time to do is work and sleep. But this weekend I was free and I really wanted to get this up before the Season Three Premiere (5 days, baby!). So, after several hard weeks, a total in complete breakdown in public, and a whole lot of brain farts, I present to you the epilogue of "Soul Search"! And yes, I do recycle names from story to story.

I also must award credit where it is due. Thanks to BlackBlur and someone else (I feel awful, but I can't remember who you are!) for getting my brain thinking on this epilogue.

Warning: I am about to throw a lot of information at you. I tried not to be influenced by certain _other_ epilogues whose names I won't disclose in the respect that people really didn't like because it sounded more like fan fiction than published work, but okay. Anyway, I'm really glad to have this over with now, and I hope you like this ending to what turned out to be a well-received story! Thank you all so much!

On a final note, I would like to dedicate this last installment of the story to libowiekitty, in hopes that she feels better from whatever is obviously bringing her down! You have my prayers, friend.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Happy Reading!

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_Epilogue_

The day was not a particularly good one for a stroll, but the six children—one of which was too young to do much more than point towards the front door and whimper in his mother's arms—nevertheless dragged their tired parents out into the gloom and up the winding Ba Sing Se road. Late afternoon had settled upon the city, as had a number of ominous storm clouds. The weather did not seem to dissuade the children at all, though, for they had long since been promised that this walk in particular would come.

"We're here!" Upon arrival, the youngest of the girls, a petite little thing of six with messy pigtails and bangs that covered all but the very tip of the arrow on her forehead, let out an excited exclamation.

The third child, the first boy for the parents, rolled his blue eyes. "No, Amaya, we're not. We just stopped here because mom can't walk very far with a baby inside her," he replied sarcastically.

Amaya put her hands on her hips in defiance of her big brother. She was young, but not too young to recognize her brother's less-than-admirable attempt at sarcasm. "I thought you were just too stupid to know," she said hotly, valiantly attempting to seem like a 'big girl' to her brother, who often wouldn't let her play with him and his other 12-year-old friends in the neighborhood.

"That's coming from the girl who painted an arrow on her forehead this morning and couldn't get it off," chuckled a nine-year-old Kiyodu. Being the middle child (exactly the middle, now that his mother was pregnant again, as his older brother had pointed out earlier), he was more soft-spoken than his three older siblings and even Amaya, who desperately refused to have her little voice overshadowed by the older children. Unlike Amaya, however, Kiyodu's quiet nature made him a better listener, and this enabled him to earn his recently acquired arrows at an early age.

As Amaya argued with her brother about who was "stupider", the eldest children, one an Airbender and the other a Waterbender, respectively, stopped chatting about whatever they had seen earlier that week in town and turned to the argument. The older of the two, age sixteen, called out to her little brother:

"Be nice, Sokka!"

"Yeah," cut in a 14-year-old Mye. "And don't practice your "new sarcasm" on Amaya."

Meanwhile, the proud (though very much exasperated) parents watched unfold what was sure to be an argument. Aang raised an eyebrow and shot a sidelong glance at his wife, who adjusted Wei on her hip and sighed.

"So much for a peaceful walk," Katara groaned, but she was smiling.

Aang walked around to Katara's other side, placed a light kiss on her cheek, and pried the child of almost two from her arms. "Come on," he said, lifting Wei up so that the child was on his shoulders. Wei let out a small squeal of delight at being in his favorite spot—it was really the only place where he could look around and see everyone from above—and grabbed his father's ears. Aang winced. "We've got a bit of a climb, and they'll figure it out that we've left them sooner or later."

Nodding, Katara turned and the pair began climbing the somewhat steep slope of the grassy hill. As they walked, she casually asked if Aang had invited Lena to join them on the stroll.

"I asked her this morning, but I think she wanted to give us some family time," Aang replied.

A small smile graced Katara's lips. "She's a good kid," she said. "I'm always thankful that we've had her help, especially after Mye was born and I couldn't do as much work around the house with two kids."

Shortly after Katara and Aang had returned from the Spirit World, Aang ran into that little girl that he had met in the hospital that first day. After a quick consultation and explanation with his wife, the couple had invited the homeless eight-year-old with the broken arm to live with them. Lena had agreed shyly, both humbled by the Avatar's kindness and excited at the prospect of having a place to live. From there, Aang and Katara provided her with education and housing in exchange for some help around the house, especially once Katara became pregnant with her third child. Then, once her assistance was no longer a necessity, Lena used the education that she had been granted to get a job in the History department of Ba Sing Se University and move out of the house, though she still often stopped by to lend a hand when it was needed and refused to accept any pay that Katara attempted to give her.

A low rumble of thunder sounded off in the distance, bringing the children back to the realization that they had limited time for their excursion. All five of them began chasing their parents (and Wei, who still sat on Aang's shoulders) up the stone-flecked hill, passed them on the way, and waited, apprehensive, at the crest of the hill for them to catch up. Once the parents did so, the group of eight continued to walk until they reached their destination.

Katara lowered herself quietly to her knees, and her children crowded around her so that they could look, too. Her fingers traced the face of the stone, loosening the dirt and vegetation that had accumulated since the last time they had come to visit. A small, sad smile rose to her face.

"Hello, Sokka," she greeted. Aang's hand found her shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. Wei squirmed now, and his father lowered him to the ground so that the young one could see. Then Katara addressed her children. "This is my brother and your namesake, Sokka." She added this last tidbit to her eldest son, who nodded eagerly and gave the old boomerang in his hand a squeeze. "He died so that I could live, and have all of you."

Now Amaya looked at the gravestone, confused. "But I don't see him anywhere. Where did he go when he died?"

Katara laughed and patted the ground in front of her. "He's right here. And next to him is our friend—"

"The Blind Bandit," the eldest daughter cut in, brushing her hair back from her eyes and momentarily revealing a blue arrow (genuine, unlike Amaya's painted one). "Toph Bei Fong."

"That's right," Aang replied with a nod and a small smile, much like Katara's. "We named you after her, Toph, for the friendship we had," he told his eldest daughter. "She was my Earthbending teacher; a rocklike, independent woman with a knack for nicknames. Toph used to call me Twinkletoes because I was light on my feet as an Airbender."

At this, the children all laughed at the humor of the name. When the moment passed, however, and a respectful silence fell on the family again, Kiyodu piped up quietly, "How did she die?"

"Well, it's sort of a complicated story that I don't even know all the parts of," Aang began, "But she died at the same time as Sokka, so she could be with him forever."

Katara, whose vibrant eyes did not leave the two headstones, added, "She loved him so much that she couldn't bear to live without him."

Amaya turned to her father. "I want to meet them someday."

Aang reached down and ruffled her already messy hair. "Someday you will, but not for a very long time, Amaya."

The two older girls, who were old enough to understand the implication that their father had made, shared a quick glance before turning back to their parents. A louder clap of thunder sounded overhead, causing Amaya to jump in surprise and grab her father's arm. Katara turned back so that she could see Aang from her spot on the ground.

"We should be heading back," she said to him. "It's going to rain soon, and I want to have a Waterbending lesson if that's the case."

The only two Waterbenders in the family, Mye and Sokka, shared an excited look and half of a happy dance at the prospect of having a Waterbending lesson. Neither were Masters yet, though Mye, being the older of the two, had a vastly greater amount of skill in the art.

Aang watched his two excited children and laughed, "I think that's a great idea. Here, why don't you all head back to the house, and your mother and I'll catch up in a bit."

The children nodded. Toph proceeded to begin shepherding the younger children down the graveyard's hill while Mye scooped up little Wei and propped him on one hip. Then the two sisters began down the hill themselves, talking quietly about whatever happened to be on their minds.

A chilling gust of wind blew by, accompanied by thunder's growling undertones.

Katara and Aang remained.

Finally, Aang slowly lowered himself to his knees beside his wife and placed one hand on the ground.

"It's always hard to come back," he muttered. Whether he was talking to his wife or himself, he wasn't sure.

Katara nodded in response and scooted closer to him as another gust blew. "I always wonder if we could have stopped it and saved them both. We did everything we could, but it wasn't _enough_, was it?"

"I don't know." He paused thoughtfully. "I think that, usually, doing everything we could isn't enough; the war, for example, cost us more lives than we'd hoped. But this time, I think it was." When she turned and looked at him, he added, "I mean, when we went back to get the weapons that we left behind, they weren't at the gates anymore. They'd moved on to bigger and better things."

"Just like us," Katara said. Her eyes dropped down to her swollen abdomen and she couldn't help but let a reluctant smile reach her face.

"Yes," Aang responded, reaching out and placing a hand on her stomach. He could almost feel the love and life radiating from within. Katara and he looked up at the same time, saw each other, and understood exactly what the other was thinking. They had been together long enough to be able to do such things. Aang leaned forward and softly kissed her before he breathed, "Just like us."

Yet again, the thunder boomed through the air—louder this time, though, and they both jumped in surprise. Then, laughing at their silliness, Aang Airbended himself to his feet and bent over to assist Katara to hers as well. It took her a few seconds, as standing up was quite a feat during the end of a third trimester, but when she did, he couldn't help but stare into her eyes for a little while. Everything that he had ever done, everything that had ever happened in his life, had brought him to this, and her smile was enough to reassure him that every cost had been worthy of paying.

A drop of rain on his cheek caused him to blink in surprise. Then, out of nowhere, the sky opened up and rain began to pour over the city in buckets. Aang quickly pulled Katara to his side and raised a hand up over his head, Waterbending a sort of umbrella over them.

He slipped his free hand into hers and smiled. Everything would be all right in the end. "Come on Katara, let's go home."

And so it was then that Aang and Katara turned away from the graveyard and began towards home. A light gust of wind blew by the side-by-side headstones, skittering the autumn leaves, and the graveyard was silent.

-

_Fin._

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A/N: Yes, that's a lot of kids. They just like making babies, okay! But little does poor Katara know that she is carrying twins! Ahahahaha! I hope the whole naming kids after people thing didn't strike you the wrong way, as I myself don't usually like it when people do that, but I felt that it was necessary for this story. Also, I'd like to mention that I named a character (ickle Wei, to be exact) after the guy who delivered me Chinese food at work and got me started on this epilogue. Thank you, random stranger! 

Anyway, now a special thanks to the people who reviewed this story. As you already probably know, I don't ask for reviews, but I still love to read every one and respond when I can, so thanks to the following people (if I missed your name by accident, my sincerest apologies!):

A Saphire Rose, Aangsfan, Aangs fangirl1214, Aangxxxkatara, AtLAfanatic, Avvygirl, BlackBlur87, Cobweb the Dictator, Coeus, DuHSPaZZiNGFeL, Justcallmewolfy, KaTaAnGfOrEvEr, Katara2102, Kichigai Hi, Killerpenguin55, Kumori Doragon, Libowiekitty, Lily Dragon, LiveInThaskyE, Mist of the Waterfalls, PsicKat, Ron Weasly girl, Sakae Kashiwagi, SaraHeartsKataang, Snows Of Yester-Year, Summer Sweetheart, TTAvatarfan, Tokkalover, Twilight Rose2, Vanille Strawberry, firreflye2, hikari-aozora, i-embrace-OCD, intricate designs, justicar347, kataangfan22, metro.max, music4ever159, shutupandlisten987

That's about it. Thanks again, so much, for reading!


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